The Polaroid instant photo is believed to have been staged at the West Side Harrison Police District station between 1999 and 2003, and depicts now-former Officers Timothy McDermott and Jerome Finnigan with an unidentified suspect. The department had asked the judge to keep the photo sealed to protect the identity of the black man.

The photo was given to the city by the FBI in 2013, and prompted the firing of McDermott. Upon casting a 5-4 vote for his firing, the police board's majority wrote that "appearing to treat an African-American man not as a human being but as a hunted animal is disgraceful and shocks the conscience."

McDermott is now appealing his dismissal in court.

The Chicago Tribune wrote that Finnigan was arrested in 2011, and is currently "serving a 12-year prison sentence for carrying out robberies and home invasions while with the department's since-disgraced Special Operations Section and for ordering a hit on a fellow officer who he believed was cooperating with investigators looking into the corruption."

Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said in a statement Wednesday that the photo is "disgusting," and added that "the despicable actions of these two former officers have no place in our police department or in our society."

"As far as I'm concerned, to that officer: Good riddance. You don't belong in the Police Department," Mayor Rahm Emanuel told reporters.